text stringlengths 9 93k |
|---|
The decision wasn't an easy one, said Jeff Pizitz, president of Gus Mayer's owner, Pizitz Management Group. But it was a necessary one, he said, to keep up with changing demographics among the store's shoppers. |
The store also will aim to attract new customers from among the pool of regular Summit shoppers and from the drive-by traffic at the shopping center's high profile location on Interstate 459 and U.S. 280. |
The Pizitz family's retailing legacy in Birmingham dates to 1899, when Louis Pizitz opened a small store that eventually became the family's namesake department store. McRae's purchased the Pizitz chain in 1986, but the family kept its other holdings. |
Pizitz Management Group is a franchisee of Great American Cookie Co. and Mrs. Fields, with more than 30 locations across the Southeast. And last year, the company launched a self-serve frozen yogurt bar concept called 32 degrees, which continues to add new locations. |
Q. Give us an update on the new Gus Mayer store. How is construction going? |
A. The entire facade of the store has been completed. Our construction is right on schedule. They're in the process of putting in our flooring. We've got a really unique ceramic floor, it almost looks like wood, and we have that in probably two-thirds of the store. The finish work -- the millwork, the cabinets, the sho... |
Q. How will you handle the move? |
A. It's going to take us approximately four to five days to move everything, move all our clothes and everything from Brookwood to The Summit. We don't plan on being closed (at Brookwood) but for a few days before we open at The Summit. We anticipate opening the last weekend in February. |
Q. What should shoppers expect in the new Gus Mayer? |
A.You will certainly see touches of the Brookwood store. We're using our same architectural firm that did Brookwood for us 10 years ago, which is Hambrecht & Oleson Design out of New York. You'll see some of the same techniques. We'll have a contemporary look to the store and we'll have an expanded jewelry and shoe dep... |
Q. How difficult was the decision to leave Gus Mayer's longtime home at Brookwood? |
A. Brookwood has been our home for close to 25 years. We've been here a long time and we certainly have loved being here. Throughout the last few years, we've seen that more and more of our shoppers have been shopping more at The Summit than at Brookwood, and our customer base and demographics have changed a little bit... |
Q. At the new store, you will no longer have a men's department, and most of your sales associates are moving to Remon's Clothier. What led to the decision to exit menswear? |
A. The decision to discontinue men's was an extremely difficult decision for us. We've been in men's, along with the rest of the store, for many decades. But the decision is due to the space constraints that we have at The Summit. Our new store is around 16,500 square feet, which is a few thousand square feet less than... |
Q. Can you give us an update on the other holdings of Pizitz Management Group, especially 32 degrees? |
A. 32 degrees has been a major focus for Pizitz Management Group. The self-serve yogurt concept has been very, very successful for us. Besides stores in The Summit and Crestline, we've opened stores throughout the Southeast, including Montgomery; Louisville, Ky.; Charleston, S.C.; Greenville, S.C.; and Columbia, S.C. T... |
WHEN a standing ovation at Anfield goes to a middle-aged man in a suit, it is either for a miracle-working manager or a distinguished former player. |
Not this time. For once, a politician put Luis Suarez, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher in the shade. |
Steve Rotheram, the MP for Liverpool Walton who campaigned so eloquently to get government documents on the Hillsborough disaster finally released, was applauded enthusiastically. |
That was always going to be Liverpool’s biggest win of the week. The problem was that it was the only one. |
But after victory in the House of Commons came a setback at their Merseyside home. |
Newly-promoted Norwich were the guests who failed to read the terms of their invitation. Trailing 1-0, Paul Lambert made a game-changing switch. |
On came his captain Grant Holt. He proved the very definition of an impact substitute. Three minutes after coming on, he had scored. Within six more, he almost delivered an improbable win for Norwich. |
The Canaries, with 10 points from five games, are not so much flying high as soaring to unexpected heights. |
They even survived an unwelcome blast from their past. Craig Bellamy’s controversial career began in Norfolk. |
Eleven years and eight clubs since he left Carrow Road for Coventry, he scored the first league goal of his second spell at Anfield against his old employers. |
His opportunistic strike on the stroke of half-time was typical Bellamy, the product of persistence and pace. |
As Jose Enrique’s punt came out of the sky, the sliding Russell Martin was trying to hold off Suarez. The ball bounced off him to Bellamy, who cut infield and placed his shot towards the far corner, John Ruddy’s touch not enough to keep it out. |
Temporarily, it ended Liverpool’s frustration. They hit the woodwork three times and were inches away from a two-goal lead in the first 11 minutes. |
In the second half, the near-misses continued when Suarez fooled Leon Barnett and looked to beat Ruddy. The covering Martin got a touch to his shot, wrong-footing his goalkeeper and seeing the ball bounce back off the upright. |
So near but yet so far, it summed up the Uruguayan’s day. He was a constant threat. His shots went wide at near and far post. When they were on target, Ruddy saved, and when he went to ground, Peter Walton was reluctant to give him a decision. |
But whereas the ball would not go in for him, it did for Holt. Anthony Pilkington curled in a cross, Pepe Reina came and missed it and Holt headed it in. |
There was almost an action replay. Another teasing cross, a second Holt header. This time Reina redeemed himself with a brilliant save. That, for Liverpool, would have been too cruel. |
Reconstruction at Nahr El Bared has been slow, and has left refugees deprived and unhappy. Credit: Rebecca Murray/IPS. |
NAHR EL BARED, Dec 15 2013 (IPS) - As the Syrian war intensifies sectarian clashes in Lebanon’s northern coastal city Tripoli, Palestinians in the area worriedly watch the violence from the sidelines. |
In the summer of 2007, the Palestinian refugees of Nahr el Bared, just 16 kilometers north of Tripoli, paid a devastating price in the battle between the Lebanese army and a small militant group living in their midst, Fatah al Islam. |
The three-month fight emerged from a power vacuum left by competitive Palestinian factions unable to effectively police the community themselves. It destroyed the camp and its regional market for local Lebanese farmers and smuggled Syrian goods. |
Over 30,000 refugee families fled to one of the other 11 official Palestinian camps in Lebanon, leaving their homes, possessions, and jobs behind. |
In Vienna the following year, international donors pledged to fund reconstruction by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) of the camp’s thousands of homes. To date, only a fifth of the community has returned to the now declared military zone, and building funds are about to run out. |
A combination of the war in Syria and donor fatigue is to blame, and the area’s impoverished Palestinian community – at risk again of being sucked into the nearby violence – sees itself as a low priority for international help. |
Shadi Diab, 40, a barber from Nahr el Bared, lives in the camp’s temporary housing while waiting for his own home to be totally rebuilt. He said he fled the camp with his wife and children on the third day of the fighting. When he returned he found the seaside community isolated by security checkpoints, and his buildin... |
Palestinians in Lebanon are legally banned from owning property and from work in about 70 professions. Although the labour law was recently revised, very little has changed on the ground, forcing the impoverished population to compete with the influx of Syrian refugees over manual work for meagre wages. |
UNRWA is restricted to rebuilding 5,000 homes in the ‘old’ UNRWA-mandated camp, established in 1949, and not in its larger outlaying areas, nicknamed the ‘new camp’. Having completed the development of four out of eight parcels of land, the agency estimates 2,500 families will move back by spring 2015, which is when fu... |
Reconstruction has been slow and plagued by challenges. Among the allegations is that it has been heavily bureaucratic, favouring construction contractors aligned with politicians, with political grandstanding over issues like the discovery of an archeological site. And then there is the controversial shape of the newl... |
The new homes are smaller and the streets wider, to allow the army – historically banned from patrolling inside Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps – to drive their armoured vehicles through. |
In Vienna, the Lebanese government had promised that the reconstruction of Nahr el Bared would serve as a model for the other camps. But Sahar Attrache, a researcher for the International Crisis Group, does not believe it has turned out that way. |
“Nahr el Bared was not just a model for reconstruction, but a model for the state and Palestinians. That Lebanese and Palestinians could reconcile in a way, and Palestinians could go under the authority of the Lebanese state,” Attrache said. |
The charity Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has had a unique role in Nahr el Bared, navigating Lebanon’s opaque legal system to rebuild houses, with European Union money, on land adjacent to the ‘old’ town, Mohajareen. |
Originally bought by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) from Lebanese landowners, Mohajareen was built to house Palestinian refugees fleeing the massacre in Tel al Zaatar camp in 1976. However, the land sale was never officially registered with the state. |
After 2007, the destroyed neighbourhood was handed over to the Islamic Waqf, or charity, which in turn donated its use for the over 100 Palestinian families who lived on the land. |
The NRC, after a drawn-out period of legal wrangling, is slated to hand over nearly 90 finished homes, hooked up to electricity and water, to Mohajareen’s old residents in February. But they recognise the Palestinians’ disappointment. |
“It is the same number of families going back in, but with less space which is an area of particular difficulty,” said NRC director Niamh Murnaghan. “One of the conditions of rebuilding was that the pathways between accommodation space are wider, so the inevitable loss is from housing space. |
“If you have been displaced for 65 years and you feel that something more is taken away, then inevitably it’s hard to feel positive,” she said. |
Fouad el Haj, is a 24-year-old from Mohajareen. As a site supervisor he is proud of his role in rebuilding his community. But he said his biggest challenge is dealing with his old neighbours, upset with the architecture and the wait to move back in. |
Chrysler's vice president of design, Ralph Gilles, tweeted on Tuesday that the car company gave its 55,000 employees the day off to vote. |
"Let's go!" he wrote on Twitter, reports Politico.com. |
The extraordinary action by the car company appears to be a shot at Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who has falsely claimed in TV and radio ads, airing in Ohio, that Chrysler was moving Jeep manufacturing jobs to China. |
Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne denied the story numerous times, fact checkers debunked it, but the Romney campaign kept running the ads. |
Gilles also slammed the China claim when it was made by Donald Trump last week. Gilles tweeted: "Trump You are full of sh*t!" |
The UAW [United Auto Workers] has been a strong supporter of Obama and has campaigned on his decision to bail out the auto industry. |
Video: Arthur Allen, CEO of ASG Software Solutions, Tells Employees to Vote for "New President" |
What’s the Best Weighted Blanket to Gift? |
Every gifting season — Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Christmas — certain gifts become popular all over again. To determine the very best versions of those gifts, we’re talking to experts, adding our own opinions, and even testing products ourselves to find the absolute best (along with several runners-up... |
While occupational therapists have used weighted blankets for years to treat patients with sensory processing or autism spectrum disorders, it wasn’t until the introduction of the widely popular Gravity Blanket that they became mainstream options for dealing with occasional insomnia or everyday anxiety. According to a ... |
Dr. Raj Dasgupta, assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, compares sleep to a puzzle, with factors like light, temperature, sound, and physical comfort as the pieces. It’s with that last puzzle-piece that weighted blankets make a difference. “Peo... |
To find out which weighted blanket is truly the best to gift, we consulted with sleep experts and tested out a few on our own. Ideally, a weighted blanket should weigh in at around 10 percent of the user’s bodyweight in order to provide enough heft without being uncomfortable, but for adults there’s some more wiggle ro... |
While any weighted blanket will give you that soothing, grounded sensation, the Baloo’s thoughtful design makes it the most comfortable and aesthetically pleasing one of the bunch. Besides feeling calmed and relaxed underneath it, I never needed to adjust the blanket during the night and it has a surprisingly thin prof... |
Editor’s note: Writer Kase Wickman wrote to us about how much she loved her new Bearaby Napper. We’ve included her thoughts here as this is a truly nice-looking weighted blanket that would make a great gift. |
The Bearaby Napper is a weighted blanket that doesn’t look like a weighted blanket (people ask me about it on Instagram whenever I post it to Stories). It has a chunky knit: the yarn (supersoft cotton, by the way) is made of rolled layers of fabric, making it deceptively heavy, so there’s no need for the little weights... |
We first discovered the YnM blanket while searching for the highest-rated weighted blankets on Amazon, and sleep experts agree that this is one of the best. “It conforms well to the curves of your body, so you really feel like you are getting hugged,” says Joe Auer, founder of sleep product review site Mattress Clarity... |
The Reviv feels and looks like a luxurious blanket. One side is covered with a velvety fabric, while the other is a silky-smooth bamboo. The Reviv uses glass beads for weight — they are nearly impossible to feel through the blanket, and thanks to the quilting, they stay evenly distributed. In a purple-navy color, it lo... |
Mosaic has been in the weighted blanket game since 2011, and their options for blanket weights, colors, and styles far outnumber the company’s newer competitors. Most Mosaic blankets are available in 1-pound increments as well as different sizes, so they’re easy to customize in order to meet your exact needs — whether ... |
Instead of plastic or glass beads, the Holden & Hay blanket is stuffed with shredded, recycled denim, which is both eco-friendly and quite comfortable. The shredded fabric doesn’t shift and move like beads, so the weight stays evenly distributed, which feels nicer than lying under what’s essentially a flattened out bea... |
“There is a misconception that weighted blankets tend to sleep hot, but that isn’t [always] the case,” says Bill Fish, certified sleep science coach and co-founder of Tuck. He explains that breathable materials prevent you from feeling overheated under all the weight, and although some brands run cooler than others, Zo... |
What’s the Best Throw Blanket to Give? |
What Are the Best Wool Slippers to Give? |
What’s the Best (Affordable) Cashmere Sweater to Give? |
The Pentagon has no current plans to increase the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. In fact, it can barely sustain the existing force, which is decades old and is in some respects almost decrepit. |
The arsenal is far from being in the “perfect shape” that President Donald Trump said Wednesday he wants to see under his watch. That is why the government is planning to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a top-to-bottom “modernization,” or replacement of the three major categories of nuclear weapons — as well a... |
ORLANDO, Fla., March 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Ribbon Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: RBBN), a global software leader in secure and intelligent cloud communications, today announced that it will be featuring several newly enhanced solutions designed to deliver enterprises advanced communications capabilities at Enterprise ... |
Also on display will be Ribbon's cloud-based Kandy Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS), which allows enterprises to leverage advanced white label self-service communications Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), such as voice, video or text or pre-built apps that they can quickly embed into website and bu... |
"Our enterprise offerings are a significant and growing part of our revenue and we are committed to bringing to market best-in-class, software-based solutions that can be delivered in any cloud environment, whether public, private or hybrid," said Patrick Joggerst, Chief Marketing Officer for Ribbon. "Ribbon's enterpri... |
The following solutions will be on display at Ribbon's booth #811during Enterprise Connect. |
Newly enhanced solution that delivers enterprises reliable, faster adoption options for Microsoft Teams. |
Session Border Controller powering new AWS offering – Ribbon's market-leading SBC is powering a new collaboration offering from Amazon Web Services (AWS). |
Session Border Controller Software Edition (SWe) Lite general availability on Microsoft Azure Marketplace - The virtualized enterprise SBC delivers small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) cost-effective, advanced Unified Communications (UC), collaboration and security capabilities, now from the Azure Marketplace. |
Kandy Communications Platform as a Service - The white label CPaaS allows CSPs to leverage their inherent branding, billing, infrastructure and relationship advantages to quickly offer innovative communications services to enterprises that drive digital transformation through low or no-code apps. |
AI-based Analytics and Security Solutions – Ribbon's AI and ML-based analytics and security solutions have already been deployed by many enterprises, delivering advanced protection and prescriptive insights on network performance. |
My server, dressed in black from head to toe, leaned against the bar in No Coward Soul’s back dining room, pointing directly at me with a pen. “He’s laughing at our music,” she remarked to another passing server. |
BOTTOM LINE: Named for a soaring, inspirational Emily Bronte poem, No Coward Soul is a casual Portuguese bistro that opened this May in Bath. Its unique, all-Portuguese wine list features a few jaw-dropping bargains, like oaky, fruit-forward Confidencial red for just $6 a glass or $22 for the entire bottle. If that’s n... |
I was. But not because it was bad. |
My giggle reflex was triggered when I heard the opening swells and syncopated brass burbles of Edith Piaf’s “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” from the speakers overhead…for the third time that hour. |
A week earlier, Billie Holiday was in endless rotation on the Bath restaurant’s all-vinyl sound system. The kettle drum at the start of “Lady Sings the Blues” seemed to announce the arrival of each course, from soup (boom) to dessert (bam). |
Vinyl isn’t the only personal possession Lomba enlisted to outfit No Coward Soul. His framed photo of Burl Ives guards the entrance to the kitchen, while an eclectic selection of vintage portraits and daguerreotypes dangle over the dark-lacquered booths in the annex dining room. And mixed in among the restaurant’s othe... |
Curry plates a serving of the standout piri piri chicken, which is rubbed in paprika and cayenne, then marinated in garlic and black pepper. |
Chiefly, the paternal branch of Lomba’s family – the Portuguese side. |
No Coward Soul’s abbreviated menu of a dozen dishes is its own retro greatest hits album (vinyl-issue only) of Portuguese cuisine. All the classics are here, from a brothy, slurpable caldo verde soup with huge chunks of potato ($8), to Plantito’s jag ($12), an aromatic Cape Verdean dish of swollen lima beans embedded i... |
Chef Seth Walker (Rangeley Tavern), one of Lomba’s old friends, came on board as chef in August, just a few months after the restaurant opened. He was no stranger to this building’s kitchen, either, having cooked here recently, when it was part of Solo Bistro, as well as three decades ago, when the space was a sandwich... |
Nearly three months after my first visit this summer, it’s clear that Walker is starting to hit his stride, gaining confidence with a crispy-skinned, confit-style duck ($24) served with jag and fluorescent-green, garlicky sautéed kale. Had the kale not been gritty (on both of my November meals), I would have asked for ... |
Ultimately, you can’t keep a chef’s personal influences out of his food. That’s not a bad thing, either. Largely through daily or weekly specials, Walker has begun building a repertoire of Luso-Southern dishes that allude to his upbringing on the other side of the Mason-Dixon. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.